June 24, 2023 - Spring Creek
24 June – Spring Creek (by Mike Borum) –
At the Wal-Mart I was met by Ben (riding shotgun in my rig), Homer, Linda, and Ainsley pulling their blue YJ, and Russ pulling his red Cherokee. When the witching hour of 8:00AM struck, I was hopefully waiting for my neighbor Jacob and his wife Gabby and their two adorable blond-headed twins Kinsley and Ryleigh to caravan with us. But they were running late, as families with kids often do. They would meeting us at the Georgetown Bathrooms. Ray was going to meet there as well, since he was pulling his black YJ from Hwy 24/Hwy 285/I-70. So I said, “Let’s ROLL!!”. Which I no believe actually means, “Oh it’s time to go? I need to use the restroom then!”. So, at 8:10AM we ROLLED!
We made the Georgetown staging area just around 9:45AM and very soon Jacob pulled up with family and neon JK in tow. Then Ray showed up and we were ready to ROLL about a half hour later. Which means, “oh I should use the bathroom?”. FINALLY we were heading east along the frontage road to the Spring Creek trailhead. WE aired down and with great anticipation found ourselves at the bottom of the first obstacle. I call it a slab, but it probably has a more common name. In either case, it’s a challenge for even the best built rigs, as we all are. I proceeded up the far left edge, and after a few times of sliding sideways, I finally got enough wheel speed to bounce my way up. All of us save Homer (he took the bypass around the right side) eventually made it up and we continued on.
This trail winds its way along many switchbacks with great views of Georgetown below. We confronted a couple groups of ATV tours, one of which the tour guide told me he’d rather not make his newbies attempt to back up. So Ben did a masterful job of getting all of us backed up to a turnout, allowing the group to pass. We continued on, just enjoying the scenery and the fantastic sunny day. We took the shortcut mogul hill to the top and pulled off the trail. We watched a well-built white Cherokee and a nearly stock dark blue Toyota Tacoma wave as they drove by. I commented that the open diff on the Toy was going to cause them problems on the rock garden. After a leisurely lunch break I said, “Let’s ROLL”, which my group has now decided is just a secret code that means, “time to use the restroom.”
Continuing on up the hillside, I was anticipating the sharp left switchback with the challenging rock obstacles. As we cam up to it, instead we saw the Cherokee turtled on top of two boulders on the right side, totally and unequivocally stuck. Both axles were drooped and both right wheels were pushed hard into rocks. The front axle was turned hard left and he couldn’t even straighten it out WITH A RAM ASSIST! His friend in the Toyota was totally out of his element and had no idea how to help. I maneuvered behind the rig with the intention of winching him off. But he was so jammed up that even doubling my winch cable wouldn’t budge him. Either he was about to lose a steering knuckle or I was going to lose a front bumper. Russ used his bottle jack under the left front tire, and we use a hi-lift to help lift the body, just enough for me to drag him off. He thanked us, and I told him his friend was going to have a rough time up ahead at the rock garden, and he may want to consider turning around. He tell me that he already tried to convince the guy, but he wanted to try anyway. So we climbed past him, nobody in our group having any issues with that section of trail, and continued to the infamous rock garden.
When we arrived, I told everyone that there is no right line, or wrong line on the section of trail. There is only the line that works for your rig. And let me tell you that I was flabbergasted that each and every one of our rigs just picked our spots carefully and deliberately, and every one of our rigs went through that thing like it was just a rocky road, no big deal. IT WAS AMAZING!
We got through the hard stuff and stopped at the meadow just before the tee. We took a few gratuitous lineup photos, walked up the hill to a spectacular view of 40 Hwy way below, watched the Cherokee and Toyota wander by, pointing at the dented body panels and toed-in front axle, and then I said, “Let’s ROLL!”. After someone said they needed to take a potty break, I now know all the answers. At the tee, I decided to take them on the loop to Idaho Springs, but instead of slogging below along Cascade Creek we stayed up on the ridgeline with a less challenging road. We went by several mines including the Lamartine and as we were passing the Sunshine Mine, I heard a guy yelling at me below where a couple ATVs were parked. He needed some fuses, which I graciously gave him, and we continued on. Another short break and a “Let’s ROLL!” break and we were at Stanley Road airing up. We went into Idaho Springs for a nice dinner at Tommyknockers (Jacob and family went to Beau Jo’s instead-pizza for the kiddos), and then headed back up the frontage roads to our trailers. We loaded up and headed home.
- Mike Borum
